|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: A Facebook post claimed that the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving held on July 1, 2026, was organised for Ghanaians to pray over the recent floods.
Verdict: Misleading. This year’s National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving was not organised specifically in response to the recent floods. Although the floods were mentioned during the event, they did not constitute its primary purpose or central focus.
Full Text
Scores died, and major roads in the Greater Accra Region, Ghana’s capital, became impassable after the torrential rainfall that occurred on June 29, 2026. The flood submerged homes and businesses, displacing thousands of residents.
While briefing Parliament on June 30, 2026, the Interior Minister, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, said the floods displaced more than 7,700 households, claimed 12 lives, and left seven others missing.
Data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency also showed that the June 29 rainfall, which measured 169 millimetres (mm), was the fourth-highest daily rainfall recorded in Accra since 1980. The floods occurred just days before Ghana’s second National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving.
A Facebook page, Ghana Today, published a post (archived here) on July 1, 2026, claiming that the Government had organised a “National Prayer Session for Ghana to pray over floods.”
As of July 5, 2026, the post had generated 566 likes, 329 comments, and 54 reshares.
The claim was also shared on several other social media platforms here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, attracting mixed reactions. DUBAWA found various comments indicating that many people believed the claim.
Nana Yow Boateng commented, “The man who prayed to God for rain is now going to beg to stop the rain.”
Osagyefo Ayeboafo Ofori, Nana Osei Agyemang and Asiedu Asiedu supported the idea of prayer but argued that prayer alone could not solve the country’s challenges.
Sophia Aikins, who found the post amusing, wrote, “I didn’t want to laugh, though, but I did!”
The post’s virality and the controversy it generated over the national event’s purpose prompted DUBAWA to verify the claim.
Verification
DUBAWA reviewed an official publication by the Presidency and found that the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving was instituted by the John Mahama-led administration in 2025 as an annual national observance following a campaign promise.
According to the Presidency, every July 1st is designated as Ghana’s official National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, bringing together people of all faiths to express gratitude to God for the nation’s blessings.
The President subsequently inaugurated a national planning committee, chaired by Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah, the presidential envoy on interfaith and ecumenical relations, with Akwasi Agyemang Prempeh serving as coordinator.
DUBAWA further found that the 2026 edition of the event was officially launched on June 2, 2026, weeks before the June 29 floods. This indicates that the programme had already been planned and scheduled before the flooding occurred.
To verify whether the programme was primarily organised to pray over the floods, DUBAWA reviewed the full broadcast of the National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving Service, spanning over three hours.
The review found that the event centred on national thanksgiving, worship and intercessory prayers for Ghana. Prayer sessions focused on national unity, peace, the country’s leadership, the government, the economy, and the nation’s overall development.
While Mr Mahama acknowledged the devastating floods in his address and encouraged Ghanaians to remain thankful despite the tragedy, the floods were not the programme’s central theme or primary purpose.
DUBAWA found no evidence that the event was convened specifically as a national prayer session for the floods. The wording of the viral Facebook post creates an impression that the Government organised the programme in response to the flooding. However, official records and the programme itself show that it was an already scheduled annual national event whose purpose extended far beyond the recent disaster.
Conclusion
DUBAWA found that the July 1 National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving was not organised specifically to pray over the recent floods. Although the floods were acknowledged during the programme, the event had been scheduled weeks earlier and focused primarily on national thanksgiving and prayers for the country’s peace, leadership, and development. Therefore, the claim is misleading.
This report was produced under the 2026 Kwame Karikari Fact-checking and OSINT Fellowship, co-hosted by DUBAWA and the Digital Technology, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Disorder Analysis Centre (DAIDAC), with support from the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
